Dipper and the Werewolf Curse
by ToothPasteCanyon
Summary: Dipper gets bitten by a werewolf. Dipper turns into a werewolf. Hilarity does not ensue... well, maybe a little.
1. Chapter 1

_In which Dipper gets more than he bargained for when out researching werewolves._

* * *

The last few purple rays of the sun shone out over Gravity Falls as a lone car drove up to the Mystery Shack. It parked right up by the trees, and a short figure in a dark robe got out, looking around quickly before darting into the forest.

"There he is." Dipper lowered his binoculars. "The Lurker."

There was a stifled giggle from behind. "The Lurker, Dipper? That's such a dorky name!"

"Ma-bel!"

"He looks more like a Geoffrey to me. Or a Tyrone! Wait, what are we even talking about again?"

Dipper sighed, picking up a large backpack. "The Lurker! That guy who's been pulling up by the Mystery Shack the last few nights, going into the forest and coming back after midnight! We were gonna trail him tonight, remember?"

"Hehe, the Lurker…"

"Are you coming or not?"

"I'm coming, bro bro!" The two twins slipped out of the Mystery Shack, heading in the direction the man had disappeared. Dipper fished out a flashlight from his backpack and kept it trained on the ground so they could follow the footsteps left in the mud.

"So Dipper," Mabel nudged her brother. "Any theories on this 'Lurker'?"

Dipper shushed his sister. "Mabel, keep your voice down! He might hear us."

"Okay!" The girl whisper-shouted.

"Anyway, I do have some theories on this guy." Dipper reached back and drew out a rather new-looking journal, marked '4' on the front and full of blank pages. "I think he's a werewolf."

"A werewolf? Like those guys in the romance movies?"

"Yes, but less ridiculous. I checked, it's the full moon tomorrow." Dipper began clicking the end of a pen repeatedly in excitement. "Mabel, why else would a guy just wander into the forest like that?"

"That makes sense." Mabel shrugged. "We've seen weirder than werewolves."

"You bet, Ma…" Something caught the boy's eye, and they stopped midsentence. Mabel carried on a little more until she noticed her brother's sudden halt.

"Dipper?"

"Mabel, look." The boy shined the flashlight onto a familiar triangular statue, half buried in the ground. "It's Bill."

Mabel frowned, walking up to the statue. "He looks all… stone-y." She stretched out a hand.

"Mabel, don't touch-!"

"And cold, too!" The girl laughed, and poked the statue in the eye. "Boop! You're not so scary now, are you Bill?"

Dipper cracked a smile; a year without the threat of Bill looming over their heads had made this discovery much more lighthearted than it otherwise would have been.

Meanwhile the girl was taking out a marker pen from inside one of her sleeves. "You know, I think Bill needs a makeover! Don't you think, Dipper?"

The boy shuddered. "A makeover? I'd only wish that on my worst enemy... so knock yourself out."

With a giggle Mabel scored a large unibrow straight across the statue's face. "Looks better already! Maybe I should add eyelashes, big eyelashes! And a mouth... huh, it's buried in the ground so I'll just put it on the side here. And don't forget the blush!" The girl took a step back from her masterpiece. "Whadda ya think, Dipper?"

"It looks great! Oh, give him a dunce cap too!"

"What's a dunce cap?"

"This, look," Dipper took the pen and wrote 'DUNCE' in big capital letters across Bill's top hat. " _Now_ it's perfect."

The two had a good laugh at Bill, then Dipper suggested they continue after the werewolf. While Mabel happily skipped off, Dipper lingered one second. They reached out and touched the top of Bill's hand (still careful not to shake it), feeling that it was indeed cold, colder than it should have been in the hot summer night.

At that moment a howl sounded from off in the forest, startling Dipper. With a shiver they backed up and ran after Mabel.

"Mabel! Where are the footprints?" Dipper huffed as he caught up, bringing out a water bottle from the backpack and taking a swig. "You have been following them, right?"

"You mean from that Lurker werewolf guy?" Mabel looked up. "Wait, why don't you just call him the werewolf?"

Dipper searched the ground with his flashlight, and groaned. "Mabel, you lost him!"

"Whoops!" the girl gave an apologetic shrug. "Sorry Dipper, I just wasn't paying- oh look, it's the river!"

"Ugh, it's fine." Dipper started pacing back and forth. "Maybe we just need to backtrack, see where the Lurker went off the path. Yeah, come on, Mabel!"

"Dipper?" Mabel was standing on the river bank.

"What now, Mabel?"

"Did the Lurker have a dark robe?"

The boy rolled his eyes. "That's what I told you, Mabel. Why?"

"Because there's a guy in a dark robe right over there."

"What?" Dipper scrambled over, only to see the very man they were looking for standing only feet away by the banks of the same river, illuminated by the light of the nearly full moon. It was a miracle the twins hadn't been heard yet.

"See, D-" The boy slapped a hand across his sister's face and put a finger to his lips. After a second Mabel's eyes brightened in understanding and he removed his hand. Giving the flashlight to Mabel, Dipper reached inside his backpack and drew out a cheap plastic camera.

The two watched the man throw off his dark cloak, revealing himself to be none other than the mailman. Dipper turned to his sister and mouthed, 'Soos was right!'

'What?' Mabel mouthed back, which Dipper took as a sign of disbelief rather than a genuine question. He pressed record and started watching.

A howl sounded off in the woods as the man laid their cloak down on a nearby rock. He proceeded to take his shoes and socks off, followed by his shirt.

Mabel made a face. "What's he doing?" She whispered.

"Probably getting ready for the transformation." Dipper grinned excitedly. "Actual footage of a werewolf transformation! I can't wait to show Great Uncle Ford when he gets back!"

The man unbuttoned his pants.

"Uhh…" Dipper switched off the camera, going somewhat red in the face and turning away. " Maybe I'll just wait until he's actually transforming."

"Yeah." Mabel agreed, also hiding her face.

The two heard a splash as the mailman jumped into the river. A second later they heard… whistling? Curiousity overcoming the urge not to be awfully scarred, Dipper sneaked a look.

The man was standing in the middle of the river in his boxers, whistling a tune as he scrubbed himself with a bar of soap.

Dipper's mouth fell open. "What are you doing?" He blurted out before quickly covering his mouth, but it was too late. The man jumped, looked around and quickly spotted the two.

"You kids!" The mailman spluttered, jumping out of the water and quickly wrapping the cloak around himself. "What-how-what are you-why?"

Mabel wrinkled her nose. "Isn't that the water that goes into the reservoir?"

Dipper gagged and poured out his water bottle.

"I can explain!" The mailman started. "You see, I, uh, got lost and- wait, what are you kids doing? What's with the camera?"

It was Dipper's turn to stumble on words. "Nothing! Uh, we were wolfwatching- I mean birdwatching, birdwatching, heh."

"We were seeing if you were gonna turn into a werewolf!" Mabel added helpfully.

The mailman's face darkened. "Oh, you're another one of those nuts who think I'm a werewolf! I'm tired of it: it's a medical condition, dangit!"

Mabel blinked. "Is that why you were taking a bath in everyone's drinking water?"

"No… yes. So what if-if it is? You all deserve it for calling me a werewolf!" The mailman gathered his clothes as they started backing up. "Waiters get to spit in your food, but what can a mailman do for some well earned payback, eh? Eh?! That's what I thought, now leave me alone!"

The mailman ran off into the woods, leaving Dipper and Mabel in a state of shock.

"I have no idea what just happened." Mabel stated.

"Yep, Mabel, that was weird… even weirder than usual Gravity Falls stuff." The two were suddenly startled by another howl, quite a lot closer-sounding this time. "I think we should call it a night."

"You can say that again, Dipper." The two turned and began to head back up the muddy path. Dipper and Mabel grew strangely silent, falling into step as they attempted to process what had just happened. Dipper fiddled with the camera, torn between wanting to throw it out into the woods or permanently destroy it back at home. Maybe burning it would symbolically rid his mind of-

 _Snap_. The sound of a twig breaking brought the twins spinning around to look behind them, linking hands. There was nothing there, nothing they could see.

"Hah!" Dipper gave a short nervous laugh. "Just, uh, jumpy, I guess."

The two turned. "Yeah, I bet it's nothing." Despite this, they walked at a much faster pace, waving their one flashlight from side to side at the creepy moonlit shadows.

Another howl sounded, so loud, so close. Mabel squeezed her brother's hand, slowed, and turned to point the flashlight behind them.

A dark shaggy figure was bounding towards them. With a jolt of terror, Mabel dropped the light and surged forwards.

"Mabel?"

"Dipper, run!"

The two didn't get far before the figure darted past them. The two skidded to a halt in surprise, but they quickly saw it turn and face them, yellow eyes glinting in the moonlight.

"It's a giant wolf!" Dipper backed up, bringing up his backpack. The wolf snarled, quickly closing distance.

"Dipper, look out!" The boy looked up in time to see his camera knocked out of his hands and crushed underfoot. The wolf was almost touching Dipper, baring a vicious display of teeth inches from his face.

Dipper blinked, then smacked the wolf in the face with his backpack. This turned out to be a silly move; the wolf stumbled, snarled and pounced, pinning the boy under a good 200 pounds of killing machine.

In this one life-flashing-before-one's-eyes moment, Dipper was surprisingly calm. All he could think about was how much it sucked that the last thing he did was watch a suspected werewolf take a shower in a river.

Then the wolf sunk its teeth into a good portion of Dipper's shoulder, and the boy's rather philosophical thoughts descended into a world of pain. Before he could be further mauled, however, the wolf was suddenly knocked right off him.

"Grappling hook!" Mabel shouted, and it seemed the weapon had once again saved the day. The rope wrapped several times around the wolf's various limbs, making it hard to untangle. After a second of struggling it managed to pull the actual gun away from the girl and awkwardly stand up, glaring at the girl with its yellow eyes. The wolf howled one last time and stumbled away.

Mabel wiped her brow. "Phew, that was scary! You alright, Dipper?"

Dipper groaned.

"Dipper?" Mabel looked down and gasped. "Dipper, your arm!"

"Everything hurts." The boy groaned. Mabel took off her sweater and wrapped it around Dipper's arm. "Ow. That didn't help."

"We need to get you back to Soos right now!" Mabel pulled her brother up with his good hand. "Come on!"

One supporting the other, the two twins made their way home, past the statue of Bill. In their plight, they failed to notice the permanent marker doodles had completely disappeared.


	2. Chapter 2

_In which Dipper can't believe the wacky night he had._

* * *

Dudes, what happened?" Soos said as he opened the door to the twins. "Did Old Man McGucket try to eat you too?"

Mabel handed her brother over to their friend, who quickly carried him over to a table. "No, we got attacked by this giant animal! It was big, and it had loads of teeth!"

"That sounds hardcore." Soos carried over the first aid kit. "How'd you escape?"

"I hit him with my grappling hook!" Mabel suddenly jumped. "Grappling hook! I didn't get it back…"

"I think there's another one in the back of the store." Soos was rummaging through the box, frowning. "Hmmm, I can't decide. Do you want the normal bandaids or these cool rainbow ones Stan bought super cheap from some store? I'd go with the rainbow ones, but that's just me."

Dipper frowned. "Soos, do you actually know first aid?"

"What's that?"

The boy abruptly sat up. "Okay, then. I'll just walk to a hospital, it's safer that way." They then winced and laid back down. "On second thoughts, maybe I could just tell you what to do."

"So." Soos pulled up a chair. "Explain this first aid thing to me. I think I saw it on one training form when I was working under Stan, but he ticked it off and told me not to worry about it."

"Typical Stan… well, you can start by washing it. I think there's antiseptic wipes in the first aid kit."

"These?"

"Yeah."

"Huh. I always thought they were tissues."

Dipper groaned. "Great. I'm gonna end up with an amputated- ow! Ow!"

"Sorry, dude. That means it's working, right?" Soos paused. "So… got bitten by something?"

"Uh, yep. That seems to be what happened."

"What was it? Was it a giant bear, or a wolf? Oh, or a werewolf!"

"Well, it was a wolf-" Soos stopped dead.

"Whoa, you got bitten by a werewolf?"

Mabel stuck her head out of the back. "Dipper got bitten by a werewolf?"

"What? No." Dipper rolled his eyes. "I said I got bitten by a giant wolf."

"A giant werewolf?" Soos's eyes went wide. "Dudes, this is bad. In the movies werewolves always get killed, or kill people, or have terrible CGI effects! What do we do?"

Dipper clenched his good fist. "I said, it wasn't a werewolf!"

"He's losing his temper!" Soos backed up. "It's starting!"

"Don't worry!" Mable jumped in front of Soos armed with a brand new: "Grappling hook! We can tie him up!"

"Guys-!" Dipper took a deep breath. "Look, I'm fine, okay? You know, I think I can even sit up." With a wince, he managed the task. "See? There's nothing to worry about. It wasn't a werewolf, it was just some wild animal. Maybe, maybe it wasn't even a regular wolf! So, you know, you guys can stop freaking out."

After a second Mable shrugged. "Well, I'm glad you're feeling better Dipper. I'll be upstairs if you go all werewolfy, hehe!"

"Well Dipper, if you're sure it was just a wolf, then I guess we can trust you. But any wolf symptoms and you come straight to me, okay!" With that, Soos made his way into the living room, leaving Dipper alone.

For a second he sighed in relief, glad to get the two off his back at least for a little while. The teasing would have been bad enough if it was just silly nonsense to him, but Dipper was a natural worrier and as soon as the word werewolf was mentioned all sorts of little worries started to pop up in his head: sure werewolves were never proven to exist, but they were never proven not to exist either, right? What if that really was a werewolf? Even the old journals had nothing on their existence, it wasn't like he'd be able to recognize one if he saw it.

Dipper pushed his fears to one side, and looked over at the stove for the time. His eyes widened as he saw it was 1:25am! The full events of today hit him, and Dipper suddenly realized how exhausted he was. The boy quickly headed upstairs and, seeing his room was dark, quietly opened the door.

In the bright moonlight, Dipper could make out his sister passed out on her bed, the grappling hook firmly grasped in her hand. The boy got into his pyjamas and laid down on his own bed. "Night, Mabel."

There was no response, of course. Dipper closed his eyes and quickly drifted off…

"Dipper! Wake up!" Dipper jolted awake to see Mabel leaning over his bed. "Why are you sleeping all weird like that?"

"What?" Dipper looked down and saw he was curled up on his pillow. "Uhhh…"

"Anyway, Soos and I are making breakfast! Come on!" She disappeared downstairs, leaving Dipper alone and confused.

Did he have a dream last night? The last thing he could remember was being attacked by a giant wolf, was that the dream? It sounded ludicrous enough; after all if he was really attacked, wouldn't he have an injury of some sort?

Yeah, it must've been the dream. With this in mind Dipper dressed and started to head downstairs, where he met Mabel just before the stairs.

"Oh, there you are, bro bro!" Mabel laughed. "I was just about to go and call you again, breakfast is ready!"

Dipper blinked. "Oh, great! Yeah, I'm, heh, pretty hungry."

This caused Mabel to have an inexplicable giggle fit.

"What, Mabel?"

"Don't go eating any people then, Mr Werewolf!" Mabel nudged him in the stomach.

"Mr… Werewolf?"

"Oh, yeah, and how's your arm doing? I hope it's feeling better after you got bitten."

Dipper raised an eyebrow. "It's doing… fine?"

"Cool! Then I'll see you downstairs, bro bro!" Mabel skipped downstairs, leaving her brother with a cold sense of dread.

Dipper slowly rolled up his sleeves and checked his arms; there was absolutely no sign of a bite, or really anything to indicate last night hadn't been a dream. But by the way Mabel acted, it had to have been real.

With a gulp, Dipper headed downstairs.


	3. Chapter 3

_In which Dipper is not reassured by his friends._

* * *

Dipper wrapped one of his arms in a slightly excessive amount of bandages before heading down to breakfast. The meal was surprisingly bad; the food was alright, but Soos and Mabel bouncing off on each other about the werewolf incident was more than enough to put him in a bad mood.

"Soos, you know Dipper was all curled up on his pillow last night?"

"Really, Hambone?" Soos took a big bite of pancake. "That sounds like real werewolf stuff."

Dipper sat back, unamused. "I was, uh, really warm last night. Can you guys stop talking about the were- the wolf?"

Soos looked over. "Sorry, dude. But if you're not having your pancakes…"

The boy pushed his plate away, which was happily accepted by the man.

"He probably wants meat." Mabel grinned.

"Mabel! What did I just say?"

"Oh, yeah, Hambone! I don't think werewolves like pancakes… at least they don't in the movies."

With a sigh, Dipper excused himself from the table and went into the gift shop. Having nothing better to do he started stocking the shelves, muttering about Mabel and Soos.

"Just because I was attacked by a wolf doesn't automatically mean it's a werewolf!" Dipper huffed, and picked up a magic 8 ball. "Am I a werewolf?"

The ball slowly revealed the text: _is it not obvious_?

"What?" The boy frowned and shook it again.

 _Question limit exceeded. Please visit the Mystery Shack to buy a replacement. No refunds!_

Laughing nervously, Dipper placed it on the shelf. "Who am I kidding? It's just a dumb souvenir."

"Got the wrong answer?" A voice from behind startled Dipper, and he turned to see Wendy sitting on the counter. "Trick is to only ask questions you want a yes to; Soos rigged them that way."

"Oh, Wendy, hi!" Dipper broke out into a relieved grin. "I thought you were Mabel for a second, phew."

Wendy blinked. "You in a fight with her or something?"

"…More or less."

"That happens all the time with my brothers." Wendy laid down over the counter. "Sometimes they just really bug me and I don't wanna be anywhere near them, you know?"

Dipper pulled a face. "Yeah. She just keeps teasing me about this one thing and she won't leave me alone!"

"What is it?"

His mouth clamped shut.

"Fair enough. I totally got something that'll take your mind off it though!" Wendy sat up, reached inside one of her pockets and pulled out what appeared to be a very small animal.

Frowning, Dipper walked up to it. "Is that… a tiny deer statue?" It seemed to be made of stone, head bent down to graze on some nonexistent grass.

"I found it in my room. Look what happens when you blink, man."

Dipper blinked, and when he opened his eyes he saw the statue had moved; it was now looking straight at him. "Whoa. That's amazing!"

"Told ya it'd take your mind off Mabel." Wendy grinned. "Maybe you can put it in that new journal you were writing?"

"My journal…" Dipper patted his vest, but then a horrible realization dawned on him. "My journal! I left it in the woods!"

"Then we should go and get it." Wendy set the deer statue down and headed towards the door. "You remember where it was?"

"I…" the boy hesitated, causing Wendy to look back with concern.

"Hey, Dipper, are you okay?" She noticed something else. "What happened to your arm?"

Dipper snapped out of it and ran to the door. "I'm fine! I'll, uh, tell you what happened on the way."

Line Break

"And so then Mabel beat the thing off with her grappling hook, and it went away."

"Wow." Wendy blinked, obviously impressed. "I bet that'll turn into an awesome scar. You'll be able to say stuff like you got in a fight with a tiger or something."

Dipper touched the bandage. "Uh, yeah. Right…"

The girl pointed. "And there's a backpack! Is it yours?"

"Yes! Yes it is!" Dipper ran over and tore open the front, bringing out the journal. He hugged it to his chest before slipping it in his coat. "Thank you so much, Wendy."

"No problem." Wendy brought out her axe. "I'm always happy to be your anti-wolf bodyguard."

Dipper grinned, shouldering the backpack. "Let's go back."

"Yep, to the shack." Wendy pulled a face. "Maybe I could just drop you back and you could tell Soos I'm fighting off some sort of huge monster; I really don't feel like working today."

"Heh, yeah." Dipper rolled his eyes. "I bet Soos will say that's me or something."

Wendy snorted. "What? That made zero sense."

The boy blushed. "Well, uh…"

"Come on, that sounds like some kind of awesome story! What did you mean by that?"

"Well, uh…" Dipper took a deep breath. "Mabel and Soos think I got bitten by a werewolf last night."

"Really?" Wendy burst out laughing. "That sounds hilarious. I couldn't imagine you as a werewolf, man. Maybe my dad or something."

"Yeah, heh…" The boy rubbed the back of his neck. "They were acting all weird today as well."

"So that's why you were out stocking shelves?"

Dipper nodded.

"Hey, Mabel and Soos are awesome, but they get carried away sometimes." Wendy shrugged. "I'd just wait until it wears off; it's just silly movie stuff, right?"

Dipper said nothing.

"Dipper?"

"Well," The boy opened his mouth and started rambling. "I mean, we've seen way weirder stuff, right? Like apocalypse weird, so why wouldn't werewolves exist too? And I mean I was showing some signs like I was sleeping weirdly and the bite-"

"Whoa, maybe you wanna talk to the Ford guy about this?"

"He and Stan are still out on their trip. They'll be back in three weeks."

"Well…" Wendy struggled for any sort of reassuring words. "Chill out, okay? It's probably just Mabel's teasing getting stuck in your head or something."

Dipper looked up and saw the Mystery Shack at the end of the forest path; their walk was at an end. "Yeah…" He rubbed his bandage. "It's probably just in my head."


	4. Chapter 4

_In which Dipper is faced with a literal painful truth._

* * *

Fortunately for Dipper, the teasing slowed as the day went on. Unfortunately for Dipper, a bad stomach ache started up just as the shop started to close.

"Is it a werewolf stomach ache?" Mabel's cheeky grin made Dipper wish he hadn't brought it up in the first place.

"No, Mabel. It's a normal stomach ache." Dipper crossed his arms. "If anything, it's probably the start of some nasty infection from the animal bite."

"A werewolf nasty infection?"

" _No_!"

So Dipper went up to his room with the journal and began to sketch an entry on the stone deer he saw earlier. He wasn't quite as good a drawer as Ford was, but after a little while he had a reasonable drawing of the creature.

Ouch. And a cramp, too. Dipper dropped the pencil and rubbed his wrist, looking down at his illustration and noting with annoyance that the antlers were two different sizes.

A knock sounded at the door. "It's Mabel, bro bro!"

"Come in." Dipper looked up to see his sister bringing in a plate of food, the strong smell coming off of it causing his already hurting stomach to turn. "Mabel, what _is_ that?"

"Rice and chicken, with glitter!" Mabel looked at her brother and frowned. "You look really pale. Are you okay, Dipper?"

"Yeah." Dipper frowned and sat up. "That just smells… weird."

"Werewolf weird?" At that, Dipper let out a groan; at least drawing the deer had taken his mind off this particular issue.

"Mabel, please, I don't want to talk about-" At that moment, a loud howl came ringing from the dark outside. Dipper jumped, then looked to his sister with a glare. "Mabel, no."

Mabel was barely suppressing a giggle. "Don't you want to join in?"

"That's it." Dipper stood up abruptly and headed towards the door, hunched over a little from his stomach ache.

"Dipper?"

The boy stopped at the doorway. "Mabel, I've had it with your werewolf jokes! I. am not. a werewolf!"

With that, he stormed out into the hall. Then he stopped, because there wasn't really anywhere to go. Soos was downstairs and going back to Mabel was not an option.

"Dipper!" Dipper turned and saw the bedroom door opening, so he quickly slid into the bathroom and locked the door. There he let out a sigh and slid down the frame, looking up at the full moon shining down on him from a triangular window, feeling weak and nauseous.

Like, really weak and nauseous. Dipper unsteadily got to his feet using the sink for balance, fully intending to go back out and get some help before-

 _Crack_. It was that cramp in his hands again, but so much worse. Dipper cringed and squeezed the edge of the sink until the pain subsided somewhat, then backed off and looked at what he had done.

At first, the deep score marks in the sink didn't register as his own. He leant against the wall, confusedly wondering when some wild animal had managed to get in their bathroom; he could've sworn they weren't there when he came in. He certainly didn't feel them when he was holding the…

And that's when it hit him. Dipper slowly raised his trembling hands up to his face, up to the moonlight, and took a long look at the dark claws that had sprung from them.

"Dipper?" The boy jolted as he heard his sister knock. Mabel was standing in front of the door, a sheepish grin on her face.

"Mabel! Ack! Don't open the door!" There was a tearing sound from inside the bathroom, but Mabel paid it no mind. She had something to say.

"Hey, Dipper, I know you're mad at me." Mabel gently tried to open the door, but it was locked. "I just wanted to say I'm really sorry for acting like a jerk tonight. You being a werewolf wasn't as funny a joke to you as it was to me and Soos. I know they don't really exist."

"Y-yeah, right." Dipper's tone sounded strained and… almost sardonic. "Totally fictional."

"Exactly!" Mabel's laughed. "We get each other. Now come outside for an awkward sibling hug!"

There was a pause. "Mabel, this isn't a good time. Go away!"

"Aww, come on bro bro! You just gotta unlock that door and let Mabel in!"

"Mabel!" Her brother groaned, and something slammed against the door. "I said go away!"

Mabel took a step back, finally realising that something wasn't quite right. "Dipper, you okay in there?" She rattled the door, laughing nervously. "You're kinda creeping me out-"

She was interrupted by a ragged scream that gradually transformed into a long, low howl. This was immediately proceeded by a growling noise and the sound of things breaking.

"Dipper?!" Mabel tried the handle again, but it was locked. "Dipper, what's going on in there? Dipper!"

She tried slamming the door with her shoulder, but all that did was hurt. She was about to run for help but caught sight of Soos running up the stairs.

"Soos!" Mabel shouted before the man could even open his mouth. "Something happened to Dipper and the door's locked!"

"On it, Hambone!" Soos kicked the door and it rattled. At the same time something fell out of the man's pocket. "Oh, look, my keys."

"Come on, Soos!"

"Right!" The handyman fixed his hat and shoved one of the keys into the door's lock, hearing a click as it turned. The two hesitated upon hearing a rumbling growl.

Soos turned to Mabel. "Are you sure you wanna do this? We could always leave this until morning or something."

"No. We have to help Dipper!" Mabel swung open the door, and the two were confronted with quite a sight for the bathroom. Toothbrushes, toothpaste and other things had been knocked to the ground, the glass containers they were held in smashed. The shower curtain pole had been brought down and there were deep claw marks in the wallpaper and, amazingly, the sink.

"Whoa." Soos looked around with an open mouth. "You know, I was kinda joking about the werewolf thing."

"Dipper?" Mabel took a step forward and was greeted by a snarl. She looked down and saw a small mass of light brown fur on the shower curtain, backed up against the wall. Right next to it was Dipper's iconic hat. "Dipper, is that you?"

The wolf barked once; whether it was a yes or a no is anyone's guess. Soos grabbed Mabel's shoulder as it got ready to pounce.

"Dude, that's not Dipp-" The two suddenly froze as the wolf leapt right at them. Mabel squeezed her eyes shut, but the only thing she felt was a rush of air as it jumped between their heads and bolted for the stairs.

Soos blinked several times. "I think I just saw my life flash before my eyes."

"Come on, Soos!" Mabel grabbed the man's sleeve as they heard a crash downstairs. She stopped to quickly pick up Dipper's hat before racing after the noise, Soos close behind.


	5. Chapter 5

_In which Dipper is indirectly called a murderer._

* * *

Dipper cracked open his eyelids, frowning as he was instantly assaulted by a headache. He looked up, fuzzily seeing the trees, and the sky…

And the ominous floating triangle looming over him. "Hey, Pinetree! That was some night you had!"

"I… what…" Dipper sat up, holding his head. He then registered the sight of the demon right in front of him. "Bill Cipher! I thought- I thought you were gone!"

"What a way to greet an old friend!"

"We are _not_ friends!"

"Whoa, somebody's woken up on the wrong side of the bed." Bill fixed his bowtie. "Not that it's all that surprising. You don't remember what happened last night, do ya kid?"

Dipper frowned. "Huh? Well, I- wait, no! What are you doing here?"

"Sidestepping the question, are we?" The demon circled around Dipper, his eyes flashing red and his voice deepening for a sentence. " _You don't even know what you did_. Come on, I dare you to drag up something in that meaty little mind of yours."

"The last thing I can remember was being in the bathroom." The boy started. "My sister Mabel was teasing me about being a… oh no."

Bill summoned a cane and began to twirl it. "Bingo, Pinetree! Though I gotta say you were pretty small; maybe you should eat some more people next time."

"Eat some more…" Dipper looked stricken. "I-is Mabel okay? Soos? What happened?!"

"Oh, I dunno whether I feel like telling you, kid. Not without some… incentive."

Dipper caught on quickly. "Oh, no. I am not making another deal with you, never again!" He got up and moved to storm off, but Bill cut him off.

"Wait, hold up! I thought you'd feel like that, which is why I have a deal you can't refuse!"

"No way."

"I could cure you of your werewolf problem, Pinetree! Think how many of your little friends you'd save or whatever."

"Oh, yeah?" The boy raised a skeptical eyebrow. "And what do you want out of this, Bill?"

Bill moved to the side, revealing the stone statue of Bill in the woods. "All you gotta do is smash this statue of me."

"What?"

"I'm not kidding, kid." The demon leaned on his cane. "That's all you need to do, and all your problems will go away."

"No." Dipper glared right at Bill. "Never! I know you're planning something!"

Bill was silent for a moment, and in that silence Dipper could hear somebody calling his name. Then the demon began to rise into the sky, his form darkening.

"Have some time to think it over, Pinetree. I'm sure in a couple hours you'll come running back to make this deal!" Bill cackled as he began to glow, with a brilliant white light that enveloped Dipper's vision.

"And when you do, make sure to thank me for the clothes."

"Dipper!" Dipper jolted awake to find Mabel standing over him, her face pale, her hair frazzled, but grinning from ear to ear. "You're okay!"

He felt himself enveloped in a hug, which he hesitantly returned. "Uh, hi, Mabel."

"'Uh, hi?'" Mabel squeezed her brother before letting him go. "Is that all you're gonna say to me?"

"Well… I guess you were right about the whole werewolf thing." Dipper looked down. "This changes everything."

"It doesn't matter, bro bro!" Mabel gave her brother a light punch on the arm. "We've been through the apocalypse together. I'm sure we can get through a little werewolf stuff."

"Haha, yeah…" Apocalypse, apocalypse… "Oh, Mabel! I saw Bill!"

"Bill…"

"Cipher!"

Mabel blinked. "That jerk? I thought he got all erased and stuff last summer!"

"Me too, but apparently not. He-" Mabel put a finger to Dipper's mouth.

"Wait, Dipper. We should probably go find Soos and head back to the Mystery Shack. We've been looking all night for you!"

"Oh, don't worry about me." Soos emerged from a nearby tree, carrying a stack of clothes. "I've been standing here the whole time."

Mabel and Dipper stared at him blankly.

"Want a change of clothes, dude?"

Dipper looked down at his mysteriously acquired set of clothing. "I think I'll change when we get back."

* * *

"So do you guys know where I went, last night?" Dipper asked as the three came into sight of the Mystery Shack.

Soos scratched his head. "Well we saw you head into the forest, but other than that, I dunno." He paused. "Think it's gonna happen again tonight?"

The boy frowned. "Well, technically full moons are only full for one day, and that'd be tomorrow. But without a telescope it's impossible to really tell a moon isn't full on the day before and after, so…"

"Full moons last for three days." Mabel finished.

"Yes, Mabel." Dipper groaned as the three walked through the door to the Mystery Shack. He felt like collapsing from exhaustion and he could tell the others did too, but first he had something to tell them. "Hey, before everyone goes and takes a nap or whatever, we need to talk about Bill."

"That yellow triangle who turned me into a banner?" Soos shuddered. "I tell you dudes, I still feel sorry for flags when I pass them."

"Yes, that guy." Dipper crossed his arms. "He wanted me to destroy that statue of himself out in the woods. I don't know why, but he's definitely planning something."

"By smashing a statue?"

"Yes, Mabel! Remember, it's not just any statue; it's his physical form." Dipper began to pace. "If I don't do it – which I won't – we need to protect it from anybody else he makes a deal with. Also, we need to contact great uncle Ford."

"Can't happen." Soos shrugged. "I've tried to call Stan so many times but they must be in some obscure place."

"Then we'll have to tell him when they get home." The boy stopped pacing. "That can't be too bad, right?"

Mabel ruffled her brother's hair. "All we need is some place for Dipper to hang out the next two nights, like… the portal room!"

"Oh, nice idea." Soos high-fived the girl. "You know, at the risk of jinxing it this whole situation might not turn out so bad after all!"

That was when a blonde-haired girl in tattered purple clothes burst through the door, breathing heavily. "D-Dipper, you're here! I… I ran all the way to the Mystery Shack to find you!"

"Pacifica!" Dipper rushed over. "Did you run all the way here? Why didn't you-"

"Drive? Because my family doesn't have a car anymore, duh!" She straightened. "But that's not the problem now. There was a werewolf attack in town last night!"

The room seemed to drop ten degrees. Mabel and Soos looked wide-eyed to Dipper, who had frozen in fear. "A-a werewolf attack?"

Pacifica picked a leaf out of her hair. "That's what I said. There's like two people dead; a mailman and some other guy. It attacked me too but it ran away when I stabbed it with our last silver fork!"

Dipper looked absolutely sick; he began to back away, shaking off Mabel's hand as she tried to touch his shoulder.

"So what are you gonna do?" Pacifica frowned. "You're the paranormal investigator- where are you going?"

The three watched as Dipper turned and bolted up the stairs. Mabel turned to the blonde-haired girl with the fakest smile in her life. "He's, uh, gone to get some supplies. And I'm going after him! _Dipper_!"

Pacifica sighed as the two siblings disappeared. "Goodbye, then. Whatever." She then turned to a very pale Soos. "Can I have a ride back? My legs are _killing_ me."


	6. Chapter 6

_In which Dipper feels intense pressure to make a deal with a demon._

* * *

"Dipper!" Dipper heard his sister calling him as he raced up the stairs. "Dipper, wait!"

"Leave me alone, Mabel!" Dipper reached his room and shut the door, backing away as he stared at his trembling hands. After a moment the door slowly opened.

Mabel's eyebrows knitted together as she laid eyes on her brother. "Oh, Dipper…"

"Mabel, I said to leave me alone!" The boy turned around, rubbing his arm. "I'm not safe to be around."

"That's not true!"

"Really?" Dipper clenched his fists.

"Well, it's not!" Mabel retorted. "It's just the whole curse thing! That wasn't you!"

"That doesn't matter!" The boy turned, and his eyes were brimming with tears. "I could've been so much more careful. I'm the expert on Gravity Falls weirdness, I should've expected it, I should've taken precautions… but I didn't and look what happened, Mabel! I… I killed people last night!" His voice softened. "I'm a monster…"

"Dipper, I know it seems really bad now, but me and Soos, and Grunkle Stan and Grunkle Ford, we'll help you!" Mabel took a step forward. "We'll work something out, I promise."

She offered a hand and Dipper stared at it, a tear running down his face. Then he wiped it away. "No, Mabel." He sat down heavily on his bed. "I… I just need to be alone. You'll find me in the portal room, later."

"Okay, I'll leave you alone." Mabel dropped her arm and backed towards the door, wearing an odd expression. "But you know I'm here if you need me, right Dipper?"

The boy didn't answer.

"Well, I am." Mabel started to close the door. "I love you, Dipper."

As soon as the door shut, Dipper threw himself onto his pillow and cried bitter tears, every once and a while looking up at the morning sky with a sense of impending dread. What had seemed like an impossibility but a day ago had turned into a very real nightmare; he'd been bitten by a werewolf, and he'd killed people. He'd killed people!

After what seemed like a very long time, Dipper felt something prod his shoulder. "Ma-able," His voice hitched heavily from crying. "Leave m-me a-a-lo-ne."

An inappropriately happy voice responded. "Hey, that's the first time I've ever been mistaken for a little girl!"

Dipper's head shot up. "Bill!"

"Second guess is a charm!" Bill twirled his cane. "How've the last few hours been treating you, kid? Just kidding, I know it's been hell."

"What do you want?" The boy quickly wiped his eyes. "Have you come to laugh at me or something?"

"Well, of course! Because you look hideous, hahaha, hahaha, HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Bill laughed dementedly, then abruptly stopped. "But I'm also here to make that deal I was talking about earlier. I figured you'd be a little more… convinced, this time round."

Dipper pulled his hat down slightly to hide his blotchy face. "No way. I told you, I'm never making a deal with you again!"

"Oh, that's a _great_ strategy." Bill floated closer to Dipper as he adopted a mocking tone. "Oh, look at me, I'm Dipper Pines! I choose my little conspiracy theories over my friends! I wouldn't even smash one statue to save them!"

"That's not true!"

"That's what you sound like, Pinetree. Honestly, what do you think smashing my statue is gonna do?"

"I don't know," Dipper growled. "Why don't you tell me?"

Bill continued on without answering. "While on the other hand, tonight you're guaranteed to wolf out. You think lives have been lost already? Think of what you'll do when Shooting Star, Question Mark, all your other friends get killed or leave you, all because you couldn't let go of your hunch against me? But all you need to do is do one little thing for me, and I can make it all go away… so whadda ya say?"

"That's…" Dipper hesitated as Bill stuck out a hand. "That's not gonna happen! I'm never making a deal with you, just go away!"

Finally, the demon seemed to take the hint. He floated away, his one eye fixed on Dipper. "Fine. Have it your way for now, but I have a feeling you're going to change your mind when the bodies start to stack up." He paused. "And by the way, I'm still waiting for that thank you for the clothes."

"Go _away_!"

"Sheesh, alright." The bright light began to envelop the demon. "I'll be happy to see your face when you realize you've slept until sundown."

"Wait, what?" Dipper immediately jolted awake, and looked out his window; the sun was indeed nearly set, casting an ominous dark shadow onto the pine trees.

He also had the beginnings of a stomach ache.

Leaping out of bed, Dipper raced down the stairs. He rushed into the gift shop and came face to face with Wendy, Soos and Mabel in the middle of a conversation.

It was quickly cut off upon his entrance, and the three turned to stare at him, all wearing unreadable expressions.

"Oh, Wendy, Soos, Mabel." Dipper took a step back, rubbing his arm. "…Hi."

"Hey, uh, Dipper." Wendy gave an awkward wave, and that's when the boy noticed something in her hand.

"Is that a newspaper?"

"This?" Soos took the newspaper from Wendy. "It's nothing, just the usual news about, um… weather… and stocks… and werewolf attacks-"

"Soos!" Mabel hissed.

"Sorry, were _cat_ attacks. Completely different."

Dipper's eyebrows drooped. "Come on, guys. I know you're lying."

Soos sighed and handed the newspaper over to the boy. "Sorry, dude. We just weren't sure how you'd react."

Dipper didn't take long to notice the front-page article: _Brutal Werewolf Attack Leaves Two Dead_. He read the first paragraph:

 _Last night Gravity Falls was shaken by a deadly werewolf rampage, stopped only by Pacifica Northwest stabbing the animal with a silver fork. "It was terrible." Pacifica says. "Its fur was so black I didn't see it coming until it was too late. All I can remember are, like, those evil yellow eyes staring at me." Paranormal investigators are assumedly trying to figure out who the werewolf's human identity is so it can be brought to unnecessarily brutal justice. In the meantime, TRUST NO ONE_.

"Dipper?" Mabel asked nervously. She watched as her brother took a deep breath and put on a brave smile.

"I'm fine, Mabel. I'll, I'll be heading down to the portal room now."

Dipper turned to the vending machine and entered the code, A-B-1-C-3. The door swung open with a rush of cold air, revealing the beginning of the staircase downward. It was lit by a harsh blue light.

The boy hesitated, but before he could take a step he felt a warm hand on his shoulder. Dipper turned to see Mabel standing next to him with a gentle smile.

"Hey, bro bro. You're not going down there without me, okay?"

"But, the curse-"

Wendy lightly punched his other shoulder. "Hey, man, we can hang on the side with all the controls. I've been hanging out down there with my friends and no matter how hard we dare each other, none of us can even dent those walls."

"I'm coming, too." Soos spoke up. "Should I like, touch your head or something? Cuz we've kinda ran out of shoulders…"

Dipper grinned at his friends. "You guys would really do that for me?"

"Absolutely, man."

"Of course, dude."

"What, you think we'd just leave you down there all alone?" Mabel playfully pushed her brother. "We're in this all the way, Dipper. That's what family's for!"

"Thanks, you guys…" Dipper faced back to the hidden doorway; it didn't look nearly so desolate anymore. "Let's go."

The group entered the vending machine and closed it after themselves, leaving the Shack empty as the last few rays of the sun died out.

There was a long, lone wolf howl from out in the woods, then silence.


	7. Chapter 7

_In which_ _Dipper plays poker and transforms into a werewolf; you know, normal stuff._

* * *

Once they reached the portal room Dipper immediately ran to the door and activated it, rushing to stand by the broken remains of the machine.

Aaaand nothing immediately happened. The boy kicked his feet in the dirt and looked over to Wendy, Soos and Mabel through the glass window, shrugging. Wendy frowned in thought for a second before snapping her fingers and moving over to one of the controls and sticking her hand behind it. A second later, she pulled out a deck of cards.

"My friends stashed this here so we could play card games whenever." Wendy explained.

Mabel's eyes widened. "Like Go Fish?"

"Not really Go Fish… more like Poker. I could teach you."

"Sure!" Mabel grinned and turned to her brother behind the glass. "Dipper's the card whiz. Good luck beating him!"

Dipper rolled his eyes. "Mabel, I don't even know how to play."

"Well, none of us are really that good at it." Wendy started shuffling. "Apparently it involves a lot of math and junk. Soos, you in?"

None but Mabel caught Dipper's sudden enthusiastic smile. "Did, did you say math?"

Once Dipper learned the basic rules, he came back into the control room and the next hour was comprised of everybody being soundly beaten by him. Despite the laughter and general lightheartedness however, everyone kept a close eye on the boy. They saw his complexion gradually drain of colour and his breath shorten until he looked like a zombie of his former self.

"And that's… three of diamonds… six of… diamonds… and…" Dipper suddenly dropped his cards on the floor and hunched over, appearing very ill indeed. Mable and Soos rushed to his side.

"You wanna go in the portal room, bro bro?" Mable asked worriedly, and her brother nodded. She and Soos gently started to escort him over to the door.

Just as they were reaching the door Dipper stumbled and caught himself on a wall, his face contorted in agony. For a second Mable could only stare as her brother's fingernails blackened and lengthened into claws that left little silver lines in the metal.

"Whoa!" Soos recoiled instinctively, and behind him Wendy's eyes widened in horror. Mable recovered first, opening the door and lightly leading Dipper into it.

"Hey, bro bro. It's gonna be okay, we'll see you in the morning, okay?" Dipper gave a weak thumbs up as the door closed, and he was out of sight.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, but it was short lived as there was a loud bang from the other side of the wall and a shout of pain.

Soos cringed. "Poor dude," He spoke in a low voice. "How long does it, you know, take?"

Mabel shrugged, and there was a pause before Wendy opened her mouth.

"Guess we'll find out." She then looked down and kept shuffling the cards, that being the only sound besides the occasional bangs and scuffling noises coming from the portal room.

Of the three, Mable seemed the most visibly affected. She drew her hands deep in her sweater and flinched at every sound. After a second Soos put his arm around her.

"You okay, Hambone? You look like you're about to go into sweater town."

"I'm okay, but Dipper's not!" Mabel hugged herself. "I just wish there was something I could do, you know?"

Wendy looked up. "Are you kidding, Mabel? You've been a beast through all of this!"

"Yeah, but, I mean, I was teasing him and everything before."

"So was I." Soos responded. "Well at first I was sorta serious, but then there was nothing happening like the movies so I stopped being serious."

"And I brushed it off when he talked to me about it!" Wendy spread her arms. "I mean, none of us could have expected this. Even Dipper didn't, and he's the paranormal expert! So don't beat yourself up about it, okay Mabel?"

Mabel cracked a small smile. "Okay."

The conversation paused, and then Soos spoke up. "I can't hear anything. Think he's-"

A loud scream interrupted Soos, ringing painfully familiar in Mabel's ears. The three collectively cringed as it morphed into a mournful wolf howl.

"He's done." Mabel said once it was over. Wendy looked over at the window.

"Huh, I can't see anything. He must still be right by the wall." She leaned back a little bit. "This is the part where he jumps out and gives me a heart attack."

Mabel looked out of the window and saw a small brown figure come into view, heading towards the centre. "There he is!"

"Wow." Soos pressed his nose to the window. "This is more like the nature channel than a horror movie."

The three watched the wolf that was Dipper look around, tail between its legs and whining incessantly. After a moment of indecision it padded over to the ruins of the portal and settled under a slab, looking… almost lonely.

This was not lost on Mabel, who leaned right up against the glass. "Dipper looks like he needs a hug."

Soos turned to the girl. "Whoa, Hambone. You realize last night this Dipper wolf killed two people, right?" He narrowed his eyes. "It's all an act to draw us out, and then he strikes! The perfect plan…"

The wolf out in the room gave another low whine, curling up in a tight little ball of fur. Wendy frowned, crossing her arms over her chest as she leaned against the wall.

"Man, Dipper's a pretty good actor then." She gave a short laugh. "I don't even do that good when I'm trying to get out of work!"

"You never underestimate werewolves, Wendy. They're smarter than they look." Soos paused. "Though he would look good in that sweater Mabel's offering him."

"Wait, what?!"

In the portal room, Mabel was sitting feet away from the wolf that was Dipper, having taken off her sweater and laid it on the ground in front of her. "Hey, uh, Dipper. You look cold over there, why don't you sit next to me on my sweater? I warmed it up for you!"

The wolf sprung up, tail tucked, ears down, staring at Mabel.

"Somebody looks scared." Mabel held out a hand. "It's okay. You know I'm not gonna hurt you, bro bro! And you're not gonna hurt me!"

"Mabel!" Behind them the door slid open, and Wendy stuck her head out. "What are you doing?"

The wolf jumped back in surprise, and Mabel looked over.

"Wait one second, Wendy!" The girl turned her attention back to the wolf. "Mabel's got this."

"Mabel…" Nevertheless, Wendy and Soos held their position.

There was a sniffing sound, and Mabel watched as the wolf inched a bit closer to her hand. She resisted the urge to draw her arm back as its mouth came within biting distance of her fingers; she had to trust her brother, just as he was trusting her.

Mabel smiled as the wolf stopped sniffing and seemed to relax, nudging her hand. "See? It's okay." She scratched the wolf under the chin and it started wagging its tail, much to her delight. "Haha, you have a tail! That's weird."

Wendy and Soos watched in amazement as seconds later the wolf was lying happily on Mabel's sweater having its belly rubbed.

"Dude." Soos started. "I totally underestimated your friendship ability. You just became best buds with a homicidal werewolf."

"What can I say? Twins have a special bond." Mabel grinned, but turned back to the wolf with a concerned frown. The wolf picked up on this, rolling right side up and staring back at the girl with bright brown eyes. "It's funny. You're not Dipper, but I know you're not the one that did all those bad things yesterday."

"Mabel, what are you talking about?" Wendy put her hands on her hips. "The only way that would be true is if there was… more than one werewolf?"

"More than one werewolf…" Mabel turned around. "Like that one that bit Dipper?"

Soos's eyes widened. "Dudes, if that's true Dipper's gonna freak out tomorrow."


	8. Chapter 8

_In which Inspector Pines Junior descovers a little inconsistency in the evidence._

* * *

"Ugh…" Much like yesterday, Dipper came to with symptoms similar to a mild hangover. This time though he sat up almost instantly, looking around his environment with a rush of fear.

He was in his bedroom, his back against his bed. He felt something soft and heavy on his shoulders… fur? No, a blanket. Also he was sitting on Mabel's sweater, but how? Wasn't he supposed to be in the portal room, locked away from causing any more harm?

Dipper looked on his bed and saw a pile of his clothes, a note pinned to the hat resting on top. It had little doodles of dogs and hearts and in Mabel's handwriting read: _Great news, bro bro! Come downstairs when ready xxx_

The boy allowed himself a small smile before jumping into action. He threw on his clothes, clumsily folded Mabel's sweater and put it on her bed and flew downstairs.

"Guys!" Dipper nearly slipped as he rushed into the living room. "Soos? Mabel? Where are you?"

"Here, Dipper!" He felt himself being tackled from behind by a certain besweatered girl.

"Mabel? Where did you come from?"

Soos' office. Come on!" Mabel took her brother's hand and pulled him along, much to his confusion.

"Wait, what was going on with the note? Why are we going to Stan's old office? Soos never uses that!"

Mabel reached the door. "All will be revealed in time, Inspector."

"Inspector?"

The girl pushed open the door, and the first thing Dipper saw was Soos and Wendy - dressed in two of Stan's old suits – abruptly stop talking and sit up straight on the far end of the desk, looking serious but also trying not to laugh. Then he saw the drawn curtains, the sloppily drawn sign on the desk that read 'Gravity Falls PD Police Department HQ', and he knew what was up.

"Mabel set you guys up to this, didn't she?"

Soos looked down at a sheet of paper in front of him as he spoke in a suspiciously mechanical tone. "Inspector Pines Junior. I am the president of the police department, Dr Soos. We have a case for you."

"Yes." Wendy continued. "Such a case. A case that will blow your mind."

Mabel turned to Dipper, spreading her arms. "The case… of the evil werewolf!"

Dipper crossed his arms. "You mean me?"

"I thought you would say that." Soos grinned. "No really dude, Hambone put it in the script! Ahem, new evidence has come to light."

Wendy reached under the desk and drew out a plastic bag. "Yeah, man, take a look at all this evidence and junk!"

Raising an eyebrow, Dipper sat down and opened the bag. Inside was the newspaper from yesterday, but also a collection of photos of Soos, Wendy and Mabel (mostly Mabel) with some sort of brown dog. No, wait…

"Is that… _me_?" Dipper flipped through the pictures, feeling his cheeks beginning to burn.

"Ye-ep!" Mabel slung an arm around her brother and pointed to one of them. "You really loved my sweater, too!"

"Hey, Dipper." Wendy winked at the very embarrassed boy. "Chill. Once we separated human you from dog you in our minds, it wasn't nearly as weird."

Soos laughed. "Yeah. Rubbing your belly was… wait, now I say it out loud it's weird. _Really_ weird."

Dipper had no reply to this.

"Anyway, Soos." Wendy shot a look at the handyman before picking up the newspaper and beginning to read. "Its fur was so black I didn't see it coming until it was too late. All I can remember are, like, those evil yellow eyes staring at me.' That was what Pacifica described the evil werewolf as. Contrast that with the photos we took yesterday."

"You're right." Dipper looked at the brown fur and brown eyes of the wolf in the photographs. "It… it wasn't me! I didn't kill anyone! Bill was trying to trick me into a deal, but how? It can't be pure coincidence, wait…" The boy snapped his fingers. "Yellow eyes, black fur… It goes even further; the werewolf that killed those people last night was Bill himself!"

"What?" Mabel, Soos and Wendy spoke simultaneously. Meanwhile Dipper lay right down on the wood floor and crossed his arms.

"He tricked me! I have to get to the bottom of this!" Dipper closed his eyes, and a second later opened them and sat up. "In a more comfortable area!"

"Dipper, that's impossible!" Mabel reached after her brother. "I thought he was only in dreams and stuff."

"I don't understand it either." Dipper turned around and began backing towards the door. "But somehow it has be true – it all fits! And if Bill's in control of some giant wolf, and he's killing people… I've got to stop this."

Dipper backed into the door, opened it, and paused. "And also thanks, for all of this… you know."

"No problem, bro bro!" Mabel dusted her hands together, turning back to Soos and Mabel. "Mission Cheer Up Dipper was a complete success!"

"So Mabel, can we open the blinds now?" Wendy squinted. "This police department room you made is kinda dark, right Soos?"

"It's Dr Soos, Wendy!" Soos puffed out his chest, and with an eyeroll Wendy knocked off his fez.

Meanwhile Dipper had raced back to his bedroom, panting as he pushed through the door. He walked over to the beds and looked over at the sweater on Mabel's bed, noting that it was covered in brown fur.

He really did like that sweater last night. Dipper quickly pushed the thought out of his head and jumped on his bed.

"Alright Bill." Dipper spoke as he closed his eyes, already feeling very tired and on the verge of sleep. "I want some… answers…"

"Well kid, you're come to the right place!" A familiar voice sounded in his ear, and Dipper's eyes snapped open. Bill was floating in the middle of the room, his back to the boy.

"Bill!" Dipper sat up and stabbed a finger at the demon. "You lied to me!"

"Now when have I heard that before?" Bill turned. "My, my, Pinetree, I did not expect you to be surprised. If I knew you were this easily fooled I would've just dangled a carrot in front of your face, all the way to my statue. Or a hunk of meat, haha!"

"How did you control that wolf? And what does the statue do?" Dipper clenched his fists. "I want answers!"

The demon spread his arms. "You're asking some big questions, kid. Let's just say since Weirdmaggedon, there's been some game changes. But I think you're missing the biggest question of hem all!"

"And what's that?"

" _How are your friends are going to survive when I come for them tonight_?" Bill laughed maniacally as Dipper's expression flipped from anger to cold fear in seconds. "I mean, unless you shatter my statue."

Dipper blinked. "N-never! We'll beat you, just like we beat you before! I'll never make another deal with you, Bill!"

"Fine, have it your way. But I've gotta tell you kid, I've been holding back until now. I'm going to enjoy tearing them limb from limb, and seeing your face the next morning!" Bill rubbed his hands together in glee. "But seriously, Pinetree. You're passing up a real good offer; maybe tonight one of your friends will see reason? Just one favour, then all your werewolf problems will be solved! Well, except one."

"What problem?" Dipper frowned as he saw the world beginning to fade. "Wait, what problem!"

"You'll see."

"Dipper! Dipper!" Dipper woke up to see Mabel's face hanging over his. "You gotta come downstairs!"

Dipper grabbed his sister's shoulder. "Mabel! Bill's coming tonight, we need to prepare!"

"That shouldn't be too bad, right?" Mabel laughed nervously. "I mean, he's just a wolf, and tonight you'll be a wolf, and we've had worse fights!"

"Did you see the size of him when he bit me? Mabel, we'd need an entire pack of me to take down him!"

"Well…" Mabel shook herself. "Blarg, I'm getting distracted. Sheriff Blubs is downstairs, he says he wants to give us all an announcement."

Dipper frowned. "That doesn't sound like him at all."

"I know. I've never seen him so serious!" The girl pulled her brother's hand. "Let's go, bro bro."


	9. Chapter 9

_In which Dipper is invited to a deadly sleepover._

* * *

Dipper and Mabel ran downstairs to see Sheriff Blubs in the office, standing arms crossed with Soos and Wendy and leaning against the photocopier machine.

"Oh, hi Sheriff!" Mabel waved, but the man remained silent. Dipper frowned.

"Where's Deputy Durland?"

At that, Sheriff Blubs tensed up, a dark frown forming on his face. Behind him Wendy frantically gestured to cut it out.

Then the Sheriff cleared his throat, and began to speak. "Deputy Durland… is not with us."

Mabel covered her mouth in shock.

"Last night while we were having a sleepover, the damned werewolf broke into my house and attacked him! I managed to get the animal off him, but by that time it was too late." Blubs took off his hat. "I had to take him to the hospital, and he won't be back for at least a month."

Dipper sighed in relief. "So he's not dead?"

"Don't you even mention that thought again, city boy!" The sheriff growled. "I know the monster is one of the people of Gravity Falls, so tonight I'm holding the biggest sleepover of your life at my house, under the full moon. Everyone better come at six o'clock sharp… or else I'll show them what happens to people who hurt my Deputy."

"A-are you saying one of us is the werewolf?" Mabel laughed nervously, paling considerably. "Because Dipper's totally not a werewolf! I mean, look at his noodle arms!"

"Mabel…" Dipper hissed. Sheriff Blubs looked unimpressed.

"I'm not saying any of you are the werewolf. Since the mailman died a night ago, all of you are equal suspects." He began to walk towards the door. "That's all."

The four waited tensely until the door slammed, then Dipper groaned loudly.

"This is just great. The first time Sheriff Blubs actually does his job, and it's going to get me killed."

Wendy walked over and put a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Don't worry, Dipper, we'll work something out! We always do."

"And there's Bill." Dipper continued. "He said he was coming for all of us tonight and I don't know how we're going to stop him!"

Soos blinked. "You mean that big werewolf? Tonight we'll be at a party filled with people who are all freaking out about werewolves."

"Oh, yeah!" Mabel grinned. "You're so smart, Soos."

"I am a man of many talents."

"But what am _I_ supposed to do?" Dipper began to pace. "It's the last night of the full moon and he's expecting everyone to be there! If I go they'll tear me apart, if I stay they'll find me in the morning!"

Mabel struggled to answer. "Well… we stopped Weirdmaggedon, remember? Maybe if we just explain-"

"What, that I'm a 'good' werewolf?" Dipper exploded. "That there's conveniently two werewolves in town? People died, Mabel! Nobody's going to take any chances if they find out!"

Everyone stood, stunned at Dipper's outburst. The boy blinked. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean it to come out that way." He leant against the photocopier. "It's just… I have no idea how I'm even going to get out of this. I'd need some kind of clone of me-"

The photocopier machine abruptly beeped, and a scanner started running underneath Dipper's hands. Dipper stared in surprise as it printed out a picture of his hands, which then literally jumped off the page and started to wiggle around.

"I'd need…" He looked up at Mabel. "A clone of me!"

"That's it, bro bro!" Mabel broke into a grin. "So we just bring a paper copy of you to the dance!"

Wendy blinked. "Wait, what?"

"Oh, Wendy, Soos, this machine can copy people." Dipper started to explain. "I used it when I was trying to… um… anyway it creates a clone of people, and as long as it doesn't touch water it looks completely identical!"

"Wow." Soos stared in amazement. "So if I tried to copy a soda..."

"It can't touch water."

"Soda isn't water!"

"Anyway, I have the perfect plan." Dipper rubbed the dust off the top of the machine. "We copy two clones of me; one to go with you to the party, one to stay here and one to, you know, keep an eye on me. How does that sound?"

"Sounds good, dude."

Wendy shrugged. "I can see that working."

"Oh yeah!" Mabel grinned "So we get to hang out with paper Dipper at a sleepover?"

"Let's get going, then." Dipper hopped onto the photocopier. "We've got a lot of explaining to do to my clones."


	10. Chapter 10

_In which Dipper 13 is given a sharp dig by the townsfolk of Gravity Falls._

* * *

The last few purple rays of the sun shone out over Gravity falls as Mabel, Wendy, Soos and a clone of Dipper pulled up by Sheriff Blubs' house. They looked around nervously before walking up to the door and knocking.

After a few seconds, Blubs himself opened the door. The man looked the four up and down before running through a giant list on a clipboard and crossing their names off.

"You four are free to go…inside." The Sheriff pushed open the door a little wider to let them through. "Everyone is out in the yard. Enjoy the refreshments."

"Ooh, refreshments!" Soos rubbed his hands together.

"It's just water."

"Aww…"

They moved through the house, quickly noticing a rather disturbing hole in one of the bedroom walls that was fenced off with police tape. Then they opened the back door into the yard, and stopped.

The place was absolutely packed, as one would expect from inviting an entire town over to one house. There were two tables on either side packed with water bottles, but other than that the guests were crowded in the middle, talking in low, nervous voices.

"This is…" Mabel started.

"I know." Dipper's clone crossed his arms. "It's the most tense sleepover I've ever been to."

"I was going to say it was the most-" Mabel stopped. "Wait, you knew what I was going to say?"

The clone blinked. "Yeah? We do that all the time."

"My brother and me do it all the time." Mabel gave the clone and odd frown, walked away and and checked her phone, leaning against a wall. She pulled up Dipper's profile and sent him a text:

 _Arrived at sleepover. How are you? x_

"Mabel." There was a familiar voice, and Mabel looked up to see Pacifica standing in front of her, holding a bottle of water.

"Oh, Pacifica!" Mabel put her phone away and smiled. "How, uh, how are you?"

She flipped around and leant back on the same wall, letting out a huff of frustration. "Doing horrible! This werewolf business is awful."

"Yeah." Mabel looked downwards. "More than you can imagine, hah."

Pacifica unscrewed her water bottle. "More than _you_ can imagine! I was the one who fought off that monster a night ago, remember?"

"Oh, yeah. Are you okay?"

"I broke, a nail!" She fumed, much to Mabel's surprise. "Now everyone's telling me to get over it! But, like, just because I'm poor now doesn't mean I have to have gross nails, know what I mean?"

Mabel didn't answer. She reached into her pocket and wrapped a hand around her phone, staring nervously at the near-night sky. Dipper hadn't texted back yet.

Meanwhile Pacifica had unscrewed her water bottle, and as she lifted it to her lips Mabel caught sight of a label clearly reading 'Bottled in Gravity Falls.'

She made a face. "Pacifica, I wouldn't drink that."

"What? Why?"

Mabel thought back to that night, when the twin's only concern was catching a mysterious man who kept going into the woods. Everything was different now.

Meanwhile, Pacifica had picked up on the girl's loss of concentration and began waving a hand in front of her. "Mabel? Don't zone out on me like that, weirdo. What were you going to say about the water?"

"Sorry, Pacifica!" Mabel brushed some hair out of her eyes. "Well there was this guy bathing in the reservoir… so it's probably all soapy and hairy and stuff. Bleck!"

"Riiight. So did you just forget to tell your brother, or does he think you're crazy like me?"

"Wha?" Mabel looked over to see Dipper standing by the edge of the crowd, unscrewing a bottle of water. "No, wait!"

Dashing up to her brother's clone, she quickly knocked the water bottle out of his hands.

"Whoa, Mabel, what was that-!" The clone blinked in realization. "Right, no water."

"Darn right, no water!" The two turned to see McGucket crop up next to them. "Them werewolves drink the stuff, it can't be good!"

Dipper's clone blinked. "Yeah, like all living things."

McGucket shoved a small vial of clear liquid into both of their hands, seeming not to hear Dipper's clone. "Besides, you kids'll need holy water to bring down a werewolf! Yoohahahaha!"

Mabel's phone buzzed.

"Uhhh, thanks, McGucket." The clone laughed nervously and handed the vial to Mabel. "But we're gonna go now, okay? See you, around!"

McGucket watched them go, an unusually suspicious look on his face.

Meanwhile Mabel and Dipper's clone over to the side of the house, away from the main crowd of people. There Mabel got out her phone and surely enough, there was a message from Dipper:

 _I'm okay, just feel sick. How are you?_

Mabel made a face. Unlike a lot of people, she never really had a problem with answering that particular question honestly, but right now 'I feel lonely' didn't quite feel like an appropriate response.

"Hey," Mabel looked up to see Dipper's clone, his arms outstretched in a familiar shy hug position. "I know you probably would prefer, uh, somebody else to be here, but a hug's a hug, right?"

Her face formed a warm smile, and she hugged the clone back. "Thanks, Dipper 2."

"More like… 13, I think."

"Haha, good thing I'm not superstish...something!" Mabel quickly texted her brother back that she was fine. Then she frowned and looked back up. "Hey, uh, you don't feel sick or anything, right?"

"Nope." The clone put his hands in his pockets. "I don't even think I have nerves."

This of course prompted Mabel to pinch the clone's arm, to which he did not react. "Can't you feel that?"

"Nope."

"Cool!" Mabel laughed. "Silly me. You're made of paper, how are you gonna turn into a-"

Sheriff Blubs burst through the door right next to them, the mayor following him, and Dipper's clone slapped a hand across the girl's mouth. The two nervously watched the Sheriff walk into the crowd, people growing quiet and parting as he approached. Then he turned and faced the crowd, and cleared his throat.

"Good evening, everybody." The Sheriff flipped through the clipboard of names as Mayor Cutebiker took his place just behind him. "We have everyone here – except for my poor Deputy Durland – which means only one thing. The werewolf is one of the people standing next to you, right now."

A low titter spread through the crowd. Mabel put her hand in her pocket and grasped her phone. She then felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to see Wendy and Soos standing next to her, understanding smiles on their faces. She smiled back.

Then McGucket popped out behind them and gave a wave, and Mabel quickly turned her attention back to the Sheriff.

"And I have a message for that werewolf!" Blubs spread his arms underneath the rising full moon. "You may think you're safe to pick us off one by one, but the people of Gravity Falls will not stand for it!"

There was a cheer, and it seemed all of a sudden the crowd was armed with silver forks, crosses, pitchforks. In the darkness they were faceless silhouettes.

Mabel's phone buzzed.

"You may think you're safe to hurt the people we care about," Blubs continued. "just because you have two faces! But you are not above the law! Tonight, we will find you, and we will bring you to justice!"

As Mabel was drawing out her phone, she had a powerful feeling that somebody was watching her. The girl looked up and saw McGucket staring daggers into her eyes, then down at her phone, then back again.

The message was clear. She put the phone back in her pocket even as it buzzed again.

"That's all." Sheriff Blubs turned to the mayor. "Is there anything you'd like to say?"

The mayor took a deep breath. "Get 'em, get 'em!"

And the crowd erupted into cheering. Mabel cringed, feeling her phone buzz once again. Then she saw something drop in her peripheral vision, and turned to the clone of Dipper.

He had fallen over, and had gotten himself up onto his hands and the balls of his feet. "Whoa. That was weird. Mabel?"

Mabel was staring at the scene, her eyes fixed to the clone's legs, which looked very odd in a way she couldn't quite pinpoint for a moment. That's when she saw it; the clone's ankle joints seemed much further up his legs than they should have been, the bottom of his feet lengthened and his knees forced forward in a way that seemed very… wolflike.

"Mabel?" The clone looked down at his hands, and saw that they were already shrunken and clawed. "Mabel!"

Time seemed to pass in a strange slow motion for Mabel. There was a scream, something grabbed her, something grabbed the clone, voices, loud voices, shouting-

And a pitchfork impaled through the stomach of the clone that looked exactly like her brother.

" _Dipper_!" Mabel reached out one hand, but she was being pulled away by somebody. Instinctively she tried to fight it, digging her heels into the ground and grabbing hold of a nearby door frame.

"It's okay!" Dipper's clone shouted back. "Go to the Mystery Shack! Make sure Dipper's-" And he was swallowed by the dark crowd.

Mabel felt another sharp tug, and she turned to see it was Wendy who was pulling at her arm. "Come on Mabel! We've got to go, _now_!"

She started running through the house, out the door, and she didn't look back.


	11. Chapter 11

Mabel turned and slammed the front door as they were leaving the house, taking a moment to stare at the wood, at her pale and shaking hands.

Because they stabbed him. She could see it in her mind's eye, over and over, the people she'd spent an entire summer with-

She felt a hand on her shoulder and let out a short yelp, turning to see Soos. The man quickly withdrew his hand. "Sorry, Hambone."

"Did-did you see them…" Mabel drew her hands deep into her sweater, feeling her eyes well with tears. "They… Dipper…"

"Dipper's fine." Soos offered a hand. "We're going the Mystery Shack to pick him up, okay?"

Mable nodded, taking the man's hand. It was then the front door opened.

"You three!" Pacifica put her hands on her hips. "What's going on?!"

Wendy ran up to them from where she was by the wall. "Hey, Pacifica, we can explain-"

"Why Dipper's a werewolf? Why you just left him to die?!" The blonde retorted. "I'm not an idiot. Something's going on, and you're going to tell me what!"

McGucket stuck his head out from behind Pacifica. "Me too!"

"Eww!"

Wendy crossed her arms. "We can explain, but get in the car first."

"And why's that?"

Almost immediately after Pacifica's question, there was a rumbling growl. Two glowing yellow eyes appeared from the shadows by the house. Soos, Wendy, Mabel and Pacifica backed up towards the car as a massive black wolf emerged from the shadows.

"Welp!" McGucket backed back into the house. "I don't need answers this badly!"

"Dipper?" Pacifica asked incredulously. She then screamed as the wolf charged her and pinned her to the ground.

"Pacifica!" Mabel watched as Pacifica got out her silver fork and tried to stab at it, with little to no impact. The wolf raised one massive paw, and Mabel quickly got out her grappling hook and shot at it. The rope wrapped several times around the limb.

"Hah!" Mabel grinned. "Grappling-"

The wolf growled and swiped sharply downwards with the affected paw, causing Mabel to stumble forward, right into its grasp. The last thing she heard was Wendy calling out her name before there was a brief, sharp sensation on the back of her head, and everything went black.

Literally. Mabel couldn't see her hands in the darkness, but she had the distinct feeling she was falling. She looked around, frowning, remembering the events of just a few seconds ago. What had happened?

A horrible thought struck her: "Am I dead?" If so it was nothing like the movies, more like falling down Grunkle Stan's bottomless pit.

That was when she was startled by a very familiar voice. "You're not dead, Shooting Star. Not yet."

"Bill?" Mabel looked around her, but it was still completely dark.

"The one and only!"

"Where am I?"

"I knocked you into the Mindspace, kid! Boy, that power would've come in handy the last billion years."

Mabel blinked. "What do you mean?"

"Knocking people out is fun!" Bill replied with a disturbing amount of enthusiasm. "But killing them is even better, which brings me to a little deal I want to make with you!"

"Deal? Killing people?" Mabel shook her head vehemently. "Oh, no! The last time you tried to make a deal you tricked me and started Weirdmaggedon!" She crossed her arms. "You didn't even make summer last any longer."

Bill's voice was smooth, undaunted by Mabel's outburst. "Hey, hey, Shooting Star, I'm going to be honest, okay? I did trick you back then, but honestly, it's different now. Hear me out." He continued without giving the girl a chance to protest. "All I need you to do is go to this statue of mine in the woods, and smash it. That's it, honestly."

"Oh, yeah?" Mabel crossed her arms. "But Dipper said-"

"I know what Pinetree said. But don't you think just one statue is a small price to pay for the lives of your friends? You're a smart girl, think about it."

"Just one statue?"

"Let's get some light in here." A blue flame appeared in front of Mabel, illuminating Bill's face and his outstretched hand. "What do you say? Save your friends, or that meaningless statue out in the woods?"

Mabel blinked, and shook herself. "Wait, no! Dipper said it's not meaningless!"

"And what if he's wrong?"

"He's not!" She retorted. "He's really smart, and I trust him! I won't make a deal with you."

The light extinguished, plunging Mabel back into total darkness.

"Fine." Bill's tone had dramatically lowered into a spitting snarl. "Have it your way, Shooting Star. Once I let you watch me kill all of your little friends, I'll come for you. Then you'll realize just how stupid you were to trust your brother. And me? I'll enjoy _every_ second of it - Hahaha, hahahaha, _hahahahahaha_!"

Mabel opened her mouth to retort, but all of a sudden the wind whistling past her face began to drown out the cackling in her ear. The room she was in began to brighten, and she looked down to see a solid white surface rushing up to meet her. Mabel covered her face, squeezing her eyes shut-

And woke up screaming in the back seat of a car. There was a shout and it swerved briefly before getting back on track.

"Hey quiet, loser," Pacifica's voice sounded from just behind her. "You nearly caused a car crash."

Wendy turned around from the front seat. "Cut it out, Pacifica. Are you okay?"

Mabel looked around, immediately noticing the roof of the car was off. And not in a 'hey, that looks funny' way, more of a 'ripped off by a wild beast' way.

"Wow." Mabel pointed to it. "What happened?"

"That wolf that was attacking us made Stan's car into a convertible." Wendy shrugged. "Soos says he likes it."

"What can I say? Stan wouldn't pay for it, but now the wolf did it for free."

Pacifica crossed her arms. "This happened after Soos almost ran me over. You guys are conveniently missing that part out."

"I was getting to that, dude." Soos paused. "I almost ran Pacifica over."

"Yeah, while you were hitting that wolf before it could take a big chunk out of her face! I was trying to beat it off with my axe, but that thing was huge! Took you out with one swipe, Mabel."

Mabel reached up to her head, where she found what felt like a sweater wrapped around her like a bandana.

"That's mine." Wendy grinned. "Hope you like flannel."

"Yeah…" Mabel rubbed her head, then flashed a smile. "Thanks for saving me back there."

"No need to thank us. We got each other's backs… though I'm not so sure about Pacifica."

"Hmph." Pacifica shrugged. "Thanks for not letting me get eaten by a werewolf or whatever."

There was a short silence.

"So how're you feeling, Hambone?" Soos looked at the girl from his rearview mirror.

"Really, really weird." Mabel answered honestly. "Like I'm in a dream or something. Pinch me, Pacifica!"

"What? No, I'm not touching you, weirdo."

"Anyway, I just can't wait to see Dipper and get out of here." She hugged herself, imagining a little ball of fur safe in her arms, away from everyone who currently wanted to hurt him. She remembered how soft and fluffy he was last night, like a warm hug.

And boy could she use a hug right now.

"You and me both." Wendy sighed as they pulled up to the Mystery Shack. "This has been one heck of a night, and not in a good way."


	12. Chapter 12

_In which Dipper and Mabel have an ending to this particular adventure._

* * *

The shack appeared just as it did when they left it, except for one beeping sound coming from Stan's old office. Somewhat nervously, Mabel made her way across the gift shop to see what it was.

The door was ajar, so she gently pushed it open. Almost immediately she was greeted with Dipper's pinetree hat; she picked it up and put it on her own head. But other than that there was no sign of her brother, yet still the incessant beeping noise which now seemed to be coming from the copy machine.

With a frown Mabel walked over to it and read the description under one urgently flashing red light: 'Please replace paper'. Huh, it wasn't empty when they left.

"Dude, where are you?" Mabel could hear Soos shout from the front, so she ran over to rejoin him. "Found anything, Hambone?"

"Nope."

"Huh." Wendy frowned, listening to the silent house. "It would suck if he ran off."

Pacifica's eyes widened. "Well, I'm not looking for him with some giant wolf monster on the loose! We can, like, pick him up later or whatever!"

"But we haven't checked upstairs yet, or the living room!" Mabel protested. "He's probably all alone and scared!"

"Hey, hey," Wendy put a hand on the girl's shoulder. "We're not leaving until we find Dipper, don't worry."

" _What_!"

The redheaded girl tossed Pacifica the keys. "Go drive yourself out of Gravity Falls, then."

Pacifica opened her mouth, going red in the face. Then she closed it again. Then she opened it, and finally: "Okay, fine! But can we split up so we at least have a chance of getting out of here alive?"

"Sounds good." Soos crossed his arms. "But who shall go with who?"

This question was doomed to go unanswered, for at that moment there was a loud howl from outside.

"Dipper?" Mabel looked out of the window to see a large pair of yellow eyes. "Nope, not Dipper!"

Soos jumped into action, slamming the front door closed. "Quick! Somebody get a table and-"

The wolf smashed through the door like tissue paper, pinning Soos underneath the splintered remains. Like lightning it slashed him right down the middle, and there was a cry of pain from the man.

Mabel gasped.

"Soos!" Wendy got out her axe and moved in to engage. The wolf violently snapped at the weapon, biting the tip off and crunching the metal in its massive maw. Mabel watched in horror as it raised a paw and swatted Wendy against the side of the shack, leaving her slumped and motionless.

Pacifica had gone white like a sheet, but nonetheless she picked something off the shelf – a magic 8-ball – and threw it at the wolf. It struck the skull with a thunk but the beast was unfazed; Mabel saw it dash from one end of the shack to the other in under a second to deliver a powerful swipe at the girl. She flew like a ragdoll in the air and landed right in front of Mabel, alive but with four deep gashes in her shoulder.

And suddenly Mabel was alone, the great black beast pacing towards her with deceptive sluggishness. Her breath caught in her chest, and she did the only thing her racing mind could think of to save herself.

She ran.

"Dipper!" Mabel screamed, clearing the parking lot. " _Dipper_!"

She could hear the awful panting of the black wolf behind her; she knew it could easily catch up to her and kill her now, but it was trailing behind. Watching. Waiting, but for what?

She kept running through the trees, calling, "Dipper!" There was no response. "Dipper!"

Still. Nothing.

Finally Mabel reached a small clearing, and what she saw there stopped her in her tracks. It was the statue. The statue of Bill.

All she had needed to do was smash this thing, and none of this would have happened. But it was too late now.

Once she stopped running, she felt the exhaustion pull her to her knees in front of the statue. There was a growling and she tiredly tilted her head to the side, already knowing what it was: the wolf with yellow eyes was emerging out of the darkness, its lips drawn back in a toothy demented smile.

"Dipper…" Mabel tried to get to her feet, but she stumbled backwards. The wolf kept on pacing towards her, and she shut her eyes tight, bracing for the impact.

It never came. Instead, another growl rumbled from the bushes behind Mabel. She opened her eyes and turned to see a small brown wolf approaching them.

"Dipper!" Mabel's face lit up. The brown wolf flicked his ear but otherwise continued to move towards the black wolf.

The black wolf let loose a roaring snarl and stopped in its tracks. It stared down the brown wolf, looked tiny compared to the beast.

All of a sudden the black wolf charged him and knocked him to the ground, and in that moment it seemed like everything was over. But then the forest seemed to come alive with rustles and growls, and in a matter of seconds the area was covered in wolves.

All of them were small, brown and furry. Like exact copies of each other… like what the copy machine did! Mabel thought back to the machine emptied of paper, and she grinned.

"Hah!" Mabel shakily stood up. "Take that, you dumb wolf- not you guys, that one."

'That one', the black wolf, seemed to have realized the danger. It growled and backed towards the centre, but in a matter of seconds all the clones had converged on it. The beast roared in pain and took off, leading hundreds of clones in pursuit.

All except one. Mabel smiled tiredly as he came up to her, head cocked worriedly.

"Thanks, Dipper. I knew I could trust you." She took off the hat she was wearing and put it on the brown wolf, who quickly shook it off. "Haha, you're funny. Wait until Wendy and Soos hear about-"

Then she stopped. "Wendy, Soos, Pacifica! Oh my gosh, we have to go, come on!"

The wolf seemed to pick up on Mabel's panic, and the two ran for home. They left the statue just as it had always been, completely untouched.


	13. Chapter 13

_In which Dipper and Mabel shave heads and call names. The end._

* * *

For once in Mabel's life, she really happy that an angry mob had showed up at their doorstep that night. The doctors said in the time it took for her to run back to the shack, it may have already been too late for Soos had the mob not gotten there earlier and drove the three casualties to the nearest hospital. Said mob was also strangely receptive to Mabel's explanation of the events; getting caught up in a frenzy and stabbing what looked like a child would do that to somebody.

Besides, they had to admit Dipper looked incredibly cute, and not at all like the wolf they were on the hunt for.

The twins spent the night at the Corduroy's. Mabel couldn't help but pick up the stress from Wendy's family – their daughter was in the hospital, after all – and she wasn't looking forward to explaining the events to Dipper the next day, but at the same time she was so, _so_ relieved that everything had turned out alright. Dipper was safe, her friends were safe, Bill was gone… she hoped.

Add that relief with more than a healthy dose of tiredness, and the girl slept like a baby, hugging Dipper wrapped in a warm blanket to her chest. When she woke up, he was sitting at the foot of her bed, a tired grin on his face. He looked so normal, for a split second she didn't remember the events of last night.

"You're awake." He stood up. "Mr Corduroy told me everything."

Mabel's eyes widened, then she jumped out of bed and tackled her brother with a tight, tearful hug. He hugged back, and for the longest time neither of them let go.

A week passed. The Corduroys helped Dipper and Mabel recover Bill's statue; they carefully dug it out of the ground and placed it in Ford's old office, safe from the demon's tricks… wherever he was. Wendy and Pacifica were let out of the hospital the next day, but Soos had to stay a little longer. He looked pretty down and in pain at the news, but with frequent visits promised and delivered by the twins, his spirits quickly lifted.

The doctors noticed Mabel's own little injury from when the wolf knocked her out, but fortunately there was no sign of concussion. All there was was an unsightly bald patch that made her hair look a little weird, whatever way she did it. Mabel said she didn't mind; after all, who was she to complain of a bald patch when Soos was in the hospital with some real messy liver stuff? But she couldn't help but mind, just that little bit.

Dipper and Mabel stuck together the first week, almost afraid to leave each other's side yet not really speaking about the incident. It passed quickly, and with Soos's return to the Mystery Shack they came back too, waving a strange goodbye to Wendy. She'd been a great host and kept telling them she was ready to talk any time about anything, but they hadn't taken her up on her offer, nor had they particularly enjoyed their time there. With the recent events, one could hardly blame them.

Soos had been strictly instructed by the doctors to have absolutely no strenuous exercise, and the man took it to heart. He found this new TV show, 'Under the Knife'. According to Soos it was this totally inaccurate medical series about an emergency room.

"How do you know it's inaccurate?" Dipper had asked one day. "You don't even know first aid."

"Oh, dude, there was this really nice nurse who started talking all about the medical stuff she deals with in the hospital. Lots of cool stories, and she taught me what a bandage is! So if you get bitten again, I'll totally know how to treat it!"

At that, Dipper froze and backed away, leaving Soos to his TV show.

One morning, Mabel wandered into the bathroom and messed with her hair for an extraordinary amount of time. This wasn't exactly uncommon; since the incident she'd been trying out all the hair styles she knew to make it look _right_ , but it always looked _wrong_. Frustrated, she made the snap decision that she was going to shave it all off. She reached for the razor… and it wasn't there. She looked for it everywhere only to hear a dull buzz coming from her bedroom. Frowning, Mabel tiptoed up to the closed door and pressed an ear to it.

Dipper was definitely doing something with the razor, but what? Mabel threw open the door to see her startled brother jump and nick his face with the device.

"Ow, Mabel! Ever heard of knocking?" The boy turned off the razor and pressed a hand to his chin. Mabel gasped.

"I'm so sorry, Dipper! Do you want me to get Soos?"

"No!" Dipper took his hand off and looked at it. "No, I think it's fine."

"Huh." Mabel crossed her arms, smiling a little. "I didn't know you shaved, bro bro."

"I didn't." Dipper reached for the first aid kit stashed behind his new monthly calendar. "Until, you know."

Mabel's smile dropped. "Oh. Do you… want to talk about it?"

Her brother turned to face her, looking very nervous all of a sudden. "I dunno… do you, Mabel?"

"Well we haven't really been talking much about it, really…" Mabel laughed nervously. "But sure. You can tell me anything, bro bro."

"Alright. I mean, this is gonna sound weird but there's just a lot of - stuff? - I've been noticing about me since a week ago." Dipper looked at the mirror and opened his mouth. "Like look, I think my canines count as actual fangs now."

Mabel hadn't noticed before, but now that they were pointed out… "Oh."

"And my ears are pointed."

"Oh," Mabel said again. "Cool?"

"No, not cool, Mabel!" Dipper cupped his hands over the top of his ears, pacing back and forth. "What am I gonna tell our parents? 'Oh, hey, I'm a werewolf now'. And what about at school? Heck, what are Grunkle Stan and Ford going to say?"

"Our Grunkles?" Mabel raised an eyebrow. "Come on, Dipper, they're not going to care. They love us!"

"I bet Stan's going to put me up as an attraction, Mabel!" Dipper fretted. "And Great Uncle Ford, I bet he'll start doing all sorts of experiments, write me up in the journal…"

"But isn't filling out the journal what you wanted to do?"

"Yes, but…!" Dipper turned to Mabel, exasperated. "I dunno, I mean, filling out the journal is great and all, but I never really imagined I'd be the one being written about, you know?"

"You don't have to fill out a journal page on yourself if you don't want to."

"But that's not the point." The boy sat down heavily on his bed. "Even if I don't, I still _can_. I'm not… not human anymore."

Mabel's face softened. "Oh, Dipper…" She came to sit by her brother, struggling for something to say. What was she supposed to say? What was the magic phrase to make everything better right now?

After a moment, Dipper took a breath and looked up, smiling at his sister. "Thanks, Mabel."

"For what?"

"For listening." Dipper shrugged. "I dunno, it sounds really weird to say stuff like that out loud, but I feel better for saying it."

Mabel looked down. "Yeah…"

"Hey, Mabel?" Dipper asked. "Is there anything you want to talk about?"

"Me? Pshhh. I'm fine, bro bro." Mabel grinned at her brother, but she could just tell he wasn't buying it. Still, he got up from the bed.

"Alright, if you're sure…"

"I mean," Mabel started. "It's not really anything."

Dipper turned around. "Nothing?"

"Well, compared to you guys, you know?" Mabel shrugged, still pulling a weird smile. "Soos spent a week in the hospital, and you've got to worry about the whole werewolf thing, and the only thing I can't stop thinking about is some bald patch! Silly, I know, right?"

Dipper frowned, pointing a finger at her hair. "That patch? Nothing else?"

"Exactly!" Mabel walked up to the mirror and tried to put her hair in a pony tail, but it _still_ looked off. "Everything else feels like some sort of crazy dream, but this… I dunno, Dipper. Just forget I said anything." She let her hair down. "Maybe I'll wear a hat like you or something until it grows back."

Dipper walked over to the mirror. "Or… I have a razor."

Mabel looked over to her brother, who had the razor in his hand and was taking off his hat. "Dipper, you're not really going to-"

He shaved a large strip out of his hair.

"Dipper!" Mabel was torn between shock and laughter. "You're crazy! Mom and Dad went nuts the last time you did something like this!"

One of Dipper's pointy ears flicked as he replaced his hat. "You know, I don't think I'll have a problem with regrowing my hair from now on."

With a snort, Mabel took the razor and shaved off a strip of her own.

"Now you're crazy too." Dipper nudged her, and she giggled.

"I bet there's all sorts of cool designs I could do with half-shaved hair!" She turned to the mirror and put an arm around her brother. "Thanks, bro bro."

"No problem, Mabel." Dipper grinned as he faced the mirror, but it quickly faded as he realized his fangs were on display. "I still don't know what to do about Mom and Dad."

"Shhhh…." Mabel stuck a finger in front of her brother's mouth. "We've got the whole summer to think about that, Dipper."

"And when it does happen?"

"We'll face it together, like we always have." Mabel then started pulling her brother towards the door. "Now let's go down for breakfast!"

Dipper sniffed. "It smells like Stancakes."

"You would know that, Dip-dog!"

"Hey!" Dipper laughed. "That better not be a new nickname, baldy."

"Dip-per! Haha, that's even worse!" Mabel playfully shoved her brother's face."But I can use it on you too. Let's go, baldy!"

Dipper smiled and followed his sister. "Right behind you, baldy."


End file.
